Work can be stressful and sometimes it's very hard to keep your cool when all you want to do is scream. These people definitely couldn't handle the pressure anymore.
“Best part was the two people making subs just start laughing and one goes…”
I’ve posted this before, but it still makes me laugh. I wasn’t the one that got fired, but I watched it happen. I was at Publix getting a sub when I hear this:
Manager: What the hell are you doing?! You know I have to fire you for doing this again.
Worker: What is the problem? I didn’t do anything wrong.
Manager: You are allowed to get something to eat on your break, not eat while you’re packing food.
Worker: So I had a couple chicken wings, it’s not that big of a deal.
Manager: THERE ARE 50 WINGS IN THE BOTTOM OF THAT TRASH CAN!!!!
Nothing else was said and the manager escorted the wing eater out. The guy was making baskets of wings and was basically going, ” 1 for the basket, 1 for me” and eating his way through the batch of wings. Best part was the two people making subs just start laughing and one goes, “if the manager knew how much that guy has eaten in the two weeks he has worked here, he would shit a brick. The other day he just sat there eating a whole container of potato salad while he was working the fryer.”
“One threw a hammer at the other one…”
I saw two stone masons get in a fist fight when I worked construction. I was laying electrical underground pipe, and they were laying block wall. One threw a hammer at the other one and hit him in the head. He ended up cracking his eye socket. The cops came and took our statements and the guy got arrested for assault.
“…Upon finding out, stood up from her desk, flung herself to the ground, and proceeded to…”
I worked in a building with a cafeteria in it, we noticed that one of the everyday cashiers had stopped showing up to work and later found out that she had passed away. My coworker asked who we were talking about and upon finding out, stood up from her desk, flung herself to the ground, and proceeded to roll back and forth crying as loud as she could. We all freaked out, we had customers on the phone we had to put on hold until we could get her to her feet and someone could escort her somewhere else so she could calm down. She took the next few days off, including the day of the funeral. Assuming she had gone to the funeral, we asked her how it was, she answered with, “Huh? I didn’t go, I barely knew her…”
“This sixteen year old tries to resist arrest, falls to the ground and begins to…”
At my old store, we had a high schooler employed as a cashier because her dad worked as the deli assistant manager. Everything was fine, she was a little bratty and wouldn’t listen to me or any of the other service leads, but she did her job alright.
Her dad got caught selling ecstasy and weed in the parking lot and was arrested and she was promptly put under investigation too. Eventually they found out that she had been stealing from her register and she was arrested during one of my shifts.
I watched as they told her why she was being arrested, that charges were being pressed, and that she was officially fired.
This sixteen year old tries to resist arrest, falls to the ground and begins to beat on the floor while tearing at her uniform. They manage to get her hands behind her back after she’d gotten her shirt off.
Once she’s in cuffs she begins to shout that she’s going to sue everyone because they’re looking at her body and she’s underage and don’t they know who she is and she knows people who will fuck us all up.
They put her in the back of the cop car and she thrashed around trying to escape, banging on the divider and trying to get her hands on the cops. Not sure what happened to her after they drove away.
“I knew he was going to Human Resources, so I…”
I got into a screaming match with my boss. He was furious, and after the altercation, I saw him head to the elevator. I knew he was going to Human Resources, so I ran down the stairs and beat him to the HR office by about 20 seconds. He had to sit in the HR waiting room for half an hour until I was done speaking to them which made him even more furious.
The reason we were fighting was even funnier. I only engaged in that battle with the boss because I’d already tentatively accepted a much higher level position at another company. I sat down with him the next day and said, “I want to discuss the disagreement we had yesterday. The reason I confronted you about that was because I felt I was being held to a different standard than the rest of the employees, and I wanted to see how you would react if I pointed that out. I wanted to know if my opinions were truly valued here, and you proved otherwise. That said, I’ve accepted a position at Company XYZ, so this is my two-weeks notice. For what it’s worth, that was your opportunity to keep me on your staff by listening to my concerns and you blew it. Thank you very much for the opportunity and I’ll have my two-weeks notice in writing on your desk this afternoon.”
“He came in for a 4 hour shift, stood in the middle of our bank of checkout registers…and just…”
I worked in a video store when there was such a thing. My co-worker showed up very, very high. He was also about 6’3″ and 140 pounds, so he stood out in a crowd to begin with. Anyway, he came in for a 4 hour shift, stood in the middle of our bank of checkout registers…and just ate chips. Like, six bags of chips back to back, and he ate them SLOW, and savored the shit out of each bite. The whole time he had zero facial expression, think of the dull stare of a chewing dairy cow. After about three hours he calmly turns to me and says, “I can’t do this anymore,” gently sets down his bag of chips, and walks out the door. We never saw him in the store again.
“After they put the cuffs on him, he immediately drops to…”
I worked with a sales rep who was about to get fired for faking his expense reports. He knew it was going to happen because corporate called the restaurant where he was pulling his scam from and they did some research and found it all out and got the law involved.
He took his company car (a Saab 9000CD) and left it in the worst part of town with the keys in it, hoping it would get stolen. Pure spite on his part. Unfortunately, he didn’t plan for how he was going to get out of this part of town so he got mugged and the crap kicked out of him. The ambulance came and took him to the ER. I should add here that he was about 25 or so and a complete jackass.
The interesting part: He tried to go out on work comp due to his “injuries” and stayed away from the office, because he knew he was going to get fired. I had to visit him at his home and explain that he was going to be fired and that he could keep the law out of this if he paid the money back. It was $2500. He said he was on pain pills due to his injuries and couldn’t understand what I was saying. He stays at home for two weeks, recovering from his “injuries.”
Here’s the meltdown: after the doctor releases him, he comes back to work. The day he comes back, the legal team and the police are waiting for him. He gets formally fired and the police arrest him. I should add that the whole thing was being recorded by the legal team on video. After they put the cuffs on him, he immediately drops to the ground screaming that he is “injured” and “in severe pain” and “doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.” The police grab him and throw him in the back of the police car while he is screaming like a baby the whole time. What he didn’t know is that there was a video camera in the police car. Once the police put him in the back of the car and then went back inside leaving him alone in the car, he stopped crying and started laughing.
This dragged on for years. My firm refused to back down and we prosecuted him for everything we could.
“She got in my face and screamed that I was trying to kill her and that she wouldn’t be able to take care of her son.”
I worked as a pharmacy technician on night shifts. It was the only 24hr pharmacy close to a hospital with a staggeringly busy ER room. Percocet was handed out like candy. Well, we had this one repeat offender who was everything wrong with the system – she doctor shopped, screamed the walls down if she didn’t get what she wanted, and called us every name under the sun. Management didn’t care because it was business as usual and furthermore, when you get into working night shifts at a pharmacy in a city, you start to understand the element. I had an exceptional level of patience…until one day she just got under my skin.
Her copay was fifty cents. She screamed at me because her copay was usually zero (not true), and that she couldn’t afford it. She had just bought cigarettes at the front counter, by the way.
She got in my face and screamed that I was trying to kill her and that she wouldn’t be able to take care of her son. She then turned to him and pointed at me saying I was the terrible woman that was killing mommy.
I lost it. I don’t know why this moment did it, but it did. I slammed my hands down on the counter, came from behind the register, and got face to face with her telling her she needed to leave before I called the cops because I was sick of her shit. She squared up with me, nose to nose, but when she saw I wasn’t backing down, she stepped back and then proceeded to ask me to pay the fifty cents for her copay. She told me I could afford it.
My coworker saw what was going on and pushed me to the back room to chill out. I don’t know how that situation ended because I was in the backroom blowing off steam, but the next time the lady came back she refused to be helped by me, which was probably best.
I’m not proud of my ridiculous behavior, and I can’t defend myself for that, but man, I had never felt anger like that before.
“I then turned and threw it at him calling him a lazy incompetent…”
I didn’t actually witness this, I did it. I was working at a Wendy’s my senior year of high school with that being my second job, the first was the McDonald’s across the street. McDonald’s taught me drive thru, and Wendy’s got 1/10th the business so I was a drive thru god there. One night there was a football game we didn’t know about, and when it let out we got absolutely slammed. I was working three positions in drive thru, which I could handle, but when I had to do fries I couldn’t deal with it. I asked the guy who was working the front counter, who hadn’t had a customer in about an hour, to hop on fries and help me out, he mumbled something and walked over there. I relax and go back to drive thru, and when I go to bag my order I see all this kid did was drop a basket of fries, not make any of the 20+ orders we had. At first I was like fuck him I got this, and made a large fry. I then turned and threw it at him calling him a lazy incompetent asshole you cant even work a fast food job, walked back to the office and tossed my head set at the manager and told told him I quit.
“I started getting really annoyed, telling her to go check night shift if she…”
The only job I’ve ever walked out on ended similarly. I was about 19 and working at Taco Bell and, like you, was successful at multitasking around drive thru. Our store was under scrutiny because of problems on night shift, but the regional manager decided to come in on day shift. She had me close out my register and had me move down to the condiment station, where I was honestly rusty on exact measurements. She was weighing every single item (“you’re off 0.2 ounces..”) and critiquing me, down to my hand motions and finger placement.
Now, I don’t react well when I detect patronizing tones. I started getting really annoyed, telling her to go check night shift if she wants to fix our store’s issues. Most of night shift would smoke pot or drink out behind the dumpster, and it reflected in their quality of work. Finally, I snapped and told her to shut the fuck up and go away. Then I untied my apron, went to the register, clocked out and started walking to my car while flipping the regional manager off. She just stood there staring at me with a look of disbelief for a few seconds, then ran after me into the parking lot. She said, “I was at first going to give you a chance to come in tomorrow and see if you’ve shown any improvement, but…” and I cut her off, again telling her to shut the fuck up and that I quit. Good times.
“This was 2012, so it was a full screened smartphone that he somehow bent until…”
We called this guy “Suit Guy.” We worked in a business casual office, most of us just wore button up shirts, decent pants and dress shoes every day. However, “Suit Guy” showed up as a new hire and wore the same exact tan suit every day for the three months he was there, which is what earned him the nickname.
He also drank a large coffee, a Monster energy drink and a can of Mountain Dew in that order between when he walked in at eight and when he had lunch at noon. Apparently he was going through a divorce that was getting pretty contentious and the combination of caffeine and rage put him over his boiling point one morning when he began screaming at his phone while at his desk and then broke his cell phone in half. This was 2012, so it was a full screened smartphone that he somehow bent until it broke. I don’t know how he did it, my friends and I tried to replicate it using one of my old phones a couple days later and we could cause some bending, but no break.
He came in the next day with a new phone and acted like he hadn’t made a scene the day before.
“She refused to hire minorities or heavier woman.”
I work in hospitality. Our old head of housekeeping was a small Polish woman with a spitfire personality. She refused to hire minorities or heavier woman (even though some of the best cleaners we’ve ever had were one of those two). She worked 7 days a week at least 50 hours total. She was burning herself out hard core. She was very paranoid and always afraid someone was out to get her position.
Well, one morning she got into it with one of our best housekeepers. She grabbed the woman’s wrist and gave her an indian burn. Then she came to the front desk, yelling and screaming, and threw herself to the floor, like a toddler having a tantrum, kicking her arms and legs. This was in the middle of a busy check in window as well, and here she is rolling on the ground crying and yelling.
I looked at her and said, “get your ass to the office if you’re going to have a melt down.” So she picked herself up, then threw herself down in the office and finished her tantrum there. She was fired that day.
“Then one afternoon he just couldn’t hack it any more.”
There was a guy I used to work with. He was the most boring, straight laced guy you could ever meet. He was very into entomology and environmental presentation. He used to do things like count the crayfish in a patch of creek at the weekend. He spoke very quietly, and I often couldn’t hear him even when I sat right next to him.
We worked in a call centre, and he was renowned as one of the best agents you could get calling through. He was so patient and gentle with even the dumbest sheep of customers. It was hard on him though – he was the kind of guy who flushes really obviously when he got pissed off. You could sit next to him watching him quietly seethe as he gently said “Yes ma’am, now if you could just click the text under the sign in button that says “forgotten you details?”….”
Then one afternoon he just couldn’t hack it any more. I have no idea what it was that got to him. This woman must have said something though cause he just screamed “FUCK OFF” down the phone line and threw his headset across his desk.
Then he picked up his office chair and kind of rammed it into the wall, and marched out the room.
Ten minutes later he came back, quietly apologized to the manager, and carried on as if nothing had happened.
I couldn’t take it any more. I was done with this woman.
I was working at a Target store, as the electronics team lead [which mostly meant standing at the camera counter waiting for someone to need something] at the time of the release of the Nintendo Wii. It had a very poor launch with a lot of scarcity. My store was kind of in a rural area and we usually got like… maybe 6 consoles a week shipped to us, maybe 3 at a time, two random days. They came through our regular truck system at 4AM and were immediately put onto the shelf in lockup, first come first serve– even team members had to wait until 8am and were not allowed to put one aside. At the height of the frenzy, we had customers waiting at the door [like, 5-8 of them usually] every single day to try and get one.
With that said, I had a woman who would come in every single day at around 1pm, and ask if we had any. Every day, I repeated what I typed above about how if she wants one she’s going to have to get up earlier because they’re always gone by 8:15. She always accused us of “Stockpiling them in the back,” saying things like, “Oh I KNOW you have them! You’re lying! Who are you holding them for?” I am the epitome of a good service person at this point in time– I am polite, patient, and attempting to give her all the info I can to help her attain one of these consoles. As December edges on and this woman still has not managed to change her tactics, or, unsurprisingly, get a fucking Wii, she finally found my breaking point when she screamed this at me: “You are going to ruin my kids’ Christmas!”
I couldn’t take it any more. I was done with this woman. I slammed my hands down on the counter and said something to the effect of, “You know what? I’m DONE.. There is NOTHING IN THIS WORLD that I want more than to ruin Christmas, for you, and for your kids. I hate Christmas, I hate your children. I have a dream about building a fort out of Nintendo Wii’s and hiding in it when I see you coming. Do you want to see the stockroom? It’s right over there, and if you find a Wii console in it I WILL BUY IT FOR YOU.” I held out my magnet keys, knowing she obviously wouldn’t take them, while she stood there with her mouth agape for a little while, and then, without saying a word, turned and left. I never saw her again, and miraculously, she apparently didn’t say anything to anyone on her way out, because I continued working there without any of my coworkers ever knowing it had happened. I felt guilty at one point, but mostly just satisfied, looking back. Now I wouldn’t be able to basically scream at a customer without cursing, and that would definitely get me fired.
“I look over and see Will getting furious, and his anger is only getting worse.”
I work in the casino industry as a table games dealer. In my area, each dealer works for their own tips (as opposed to the larger tribal casinos that pool tips), so things can get sort of competitive between us at times. The pit boss decides our rotation (the order that we deal each game), and if they don’t like you, it is within their power to skip you over the “money table.”
I was in rotation with a friend of mine, lets call him Will. Will and the pit boss are most definitely not friends. There was a table with ~4 customers on it, and 2 of the customers were high rollers. Now, in 1 rotation on a table like that, a dealer can make ~$200-$400 in 20 minutes. Tables like that are the reason we became dealers in the first place. Anyway, Will is about to go to the money table, and as he is about to tap in, the pit boss pulls him and puts him on a game with zero players, and tells Will that he won’t be dealing that money table all night.
I look over and see Will getting furious, and his anger is only getting worse. I hear Will yell “Hey, floor! Fuck you!” This gets the attention of everyone in the room. Pit boss says “pull your lid Will,” which means he is closing the table to send Will home or fire him. Will responds “No, I said fuck you!” Will then reaches into his tray of chips and grabs a stack of black chips ($100 chips, a stack is $2000), and throws them at the pit boss saying “fuck you!” again, and then he walks off his game while the lid is off (HUGE no-no). Well, Will lost his gaming license and his job for that stunt, but secured himself as a legend in our business. Best rage quit I’ve ever seen.
“About 10 minutes later, as I’m checking out, I once again see this manager publicly…”
I was shopping at a Stop N Shop one day about 10 years back, picking up some odds and ends before going home when I overheard some guy getting torn down by his manager. He was in the process of cleaning up broken jar of jam or some such and his manager was just totally ripping into him:
“Do you know how long this mess has been here? Why does it seem like I’m always leading you around like a dog just to get you to work? Do you know how many people would kill to have your job?”
The worker was a skinny dude maybe 17 or 18, and was sort of just gritting his teeth and keeping it cool despite the barrage of insults. After he gets things cleaned up, he pushes the mop bucket away down the aisle and the manager walks off. I go into the aisle to get some peanut butter and just see him stop in his tracks, and take a deep, shuddering breath. His hands clench and unclench, and he walks on. I continue shopping and he disappears.
About 10 minutes later, as I’m checking out, I once again see this manager publicly tear into the same guy for not being up front and bagging for customers. “Despite repeated calls,” he’s doing the best he can bagging while under this duress, but eventually lets “I’m doing the best I can, man” out under his breath.
This seems to incense the manager who goes on about how his best isn’t good enough, and how he’s not representing the Stop N Shop brand. Kid finally just stops working and stares at the manager for a moment before, with arms shuddering with rage, grabbing at his shirt. With a rage-filled yell that silences the checkout area he rips the shirt off his chest like fucking Hulk Hogan, throws it into his manager’s face, then calmly walks out of the store. Everyone’s just shocked, and the manager walks away speechless with the remains of the shirt.
The silence is pierced by someone on the intercom saying ‘cleanup, aisle 7’ and once more items are checked out.
“She would go around saying things like…”
When I was a teenager, I worked at a job where the general manager’s husband was sleeping with the assistant manager. The assistant manager flaunted it too. She would go around saying things like, “He told me I give better head than you do” and “No wonder your husband cheats. I would cheat if I were married to you!”
Anyway, one day, the general manager finally snaps and they get into a full on cat fight right in front of the entire store. We had to call the police to break them up.
It is pretty bad when the teenage crew can act more civilized than the adult managers.